When schools, colleges, and health care agencies are accredited, it lets the client or consumer know they are putting their trust in an institution with professional qualifications. The same is true of police agencies and for that reason, the Dearborn Police Department underwent a two-year process of becoming an accredited law enforcement agency through the Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission (MLEAC). The process was completed in September and Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad says, "This was to make sure we give our citizens the best service we can."

The state accreditation, implemented by the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police (MACP), provides police agencies with professional standards and a statement of professional objectives. The Michigan Law Enforcement Accreditation Program is purely voluntary and gives police agencies an opportunity for self-analysis to determine where departmental changes and improvements can be made.

"What accreditation means to the people in the community is that the department that serves them is meeting national best practices in a lot of different areas," says Neal Rossow, MLEAC Accreditation Program Director. The program sets forth 108 standards which must be met by police departments in the areas of administration, personnel, operations, investigations, and prisoner/detainee handling. The standards include agency equipment, records handling, recruitment, use of force, traffic safety, and juvenile matters, to name a few. Each of the 108 standards requires the agency to draft a policy, or written directive that meets the standard. Proof of those standards being met within the department must then be presented to assessors who come from outside the department and are trained by the MLEAC.

"In most cases, we were there or almost there because we've been working on our standards for a long time," says Haddad. "Where they found that we could do better and be more compliant with what was required, they let us know right away." He adds that the process has been a challenge and that the department had to develop policies to meet some of the standards they wanted to meet.

Haddad, who has been Dearborn's Police Chief since 2008, emphasizes his department had been working on addressing its use of force tactics for about 10 years. "We started this before George Floyd," he says. "Since George Floyd, police departments around the country have come under strain and attack to do better."

The Dearborn Police Department is a busy one. Haddad says his department answers 70,000 police runs, makes 7,000 arrests, and takes 400 weapons off the street each year. "We do an incredible job, we're

incredibly committed to de-escalation and recognizing mental illness, we've trained hard on it," he says. MLEAC Accreditation acknowledges the implementation of sound written directives within the department and represents a significant professional achievement.

"What does it mean for the future? It means that every three years they'll come in here and do an audit on two fronts: number one, they want to make sure that we lived up to the accreditation they granted three years prior, and number two, they want to make sure that we've upgraded on any national best practices that may have come into existence," says Haddad. "This is a great insurance policy for the future."